Origin Agritech Limited (NASDAQ:SEED)

Monday, September 21, 2020

Research

Agritech Limited (NASDAQ:SEED) (Agricultural Technology) is an agriculture technology company we have been highlighting as an opportunity to benefit from China’s stated goal to become GMO “positive” by the end of 2020.  We came across this link published on August 4, 2020 on a Chinese government site, The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. 

The posting lists 29 gene traits that have been tested and “approved.” The site lists:

“29 standards including the "Qualitative PCR Method for Papaya Internal Standard Genes for Component Testing of Genetically Modified Plants and Their Products" have been reviewed and approved by experts and are now approved for publication as the National Standards of the People's Republic of China, which will be implemented on November 1, 2020.

If you click on the PDF attachment, you will see the list of the 29 different “standards.” After some research we found that standards “12” and “16” are referring to two corn traits that are owned by SEED. 

If you crosscheck the gene codes from the images above,  “G1105E-823C” and “GH5112E-117C,” with google patent, you will notice that both of these gene patents were applications were filed and thus owned by SEED:

[1] Gene Trait/Source: G1105E-823c

[2] Gene Trait/Source: GH5112E-117C

We are still trying to make sense of all the information, but it seems that SEED is in line to receive two bio-safety certificates for two Corn GMO traits by November 1, 2020. So far, our preliminary research indicates that companies on similar lists over the past two years have received regulatory certificates prior to or up to a month after the implementation/effective dates disclosed in related postings. Obviously, we are very excited about this development, but we still need to gain additional clarity on what this all means for SEED. One thing we still need to keep in mind is that in order for investors to get really excited, China has to officially announce that they have gone GMO positive.